(Keep in mind, this story is written >2,000 years ago.) A guy was walking in a small road at the country side. He saw a skull. He picked it up and asked the skull "How did you die? Were you a poor man and starved to death? Or were you a rich man and being robbed and killed in the defense of your wealth? Or were you an old man who died because of sickness? Or were you a young man who killed yourself because you cannot stand the pressure of an unhappy life? ... ..." With all these questioning, the skull did not reply. The guy was tired and then he used the skull as his pillow and he slept. During his sleep, he had a dream. The skull talked to him "Now I am wandering in the universe, so freely and so comfortably, without my body and I cannot feel the pain, wealth is of no use to me and nothing can upset me. The questions that you asked me is of no value to me." Then, the guy asked him, "Would you like to return to this earth and continue your life if you can have your fresh and skeleton back?" The skull replied, "Of course not, now that I am so comfortable and so free, I can go anywhere I like and are not attached to anything. I am like a breath of air that does not have shape/form and neither am I need to reply on anything/anywhere. Why would I like to be back with my human body to suffer again?" ... The guy then woke up, smiled and said, "Earthly people worried about death, the dead (people) never worried about the earthly people!" ... ... ...
Do we know death? What is death? If we know death, then we know how to live ... happily!
Those who fears death lives a life unfulfilled!
ReplyDeleteor living an unfulfilled life!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Chinese who had no relgion like me will easily follow the Lao/Zhuang way of thnking. Lateley my wife is having stage 4 cancer and I am trying my best to take care of her and feeling life is full of unexpected events....and we are just helpless
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteLife indeed is full of "unexpected" (and "expected") event. For example, death is expected for everyone of us, but the time (and the cause) is unexpected. We often feel "helpless" when "unexpected incidents" hit us, while if we go deeper into it, it's not that we are "helpless", as it is "just the way it is".
Being a Stage 4 Lung Cancer Patient myself, I find six words extremely powerful: "Let It Flow" and "Let It Go". For things that we cannot change, "Let It Flow", flow with it, let them come by and pass you, like you are floating in a river. For things that bother/concern you, "Let It Go", release them and don't use force to pull them back. As soon as you can "Let It Go", you should feel the relief and take a deep breathe.
Focus on the "here and now", as everyday and every minute counts, focus on the quality (quality of every day life) and not the quantity (the length of life), and funny enough, once quality comes, quantity usually will follow.
With prayers for you and your wife!
Yours, Matthew